Update: Local Workers React to Talk of Minimum Wage Raise

Update: Local Workers React to Talk of Minimum Wage Raise

President Obama proposes raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 per hour.

President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage to nine dollars an hour in his State of the Union Address last Tuesday.

Many who are currently making the $7.25 per hour, including Billy's BBQ employee Eliot Brown, a student at UK, says the extra dollar-twenty-five would go a long way towards paying those bills and student loans.

However business owners like Robert Stubblefield who owns Billy's, says the raise would put a real financial burden on small businesses who are just getting by in this tough economic time.

Stubblefield adds that raising the wage that much would make it very difficult to give raises to his other employees who are full-time and worked for him for years. He says if the wage was raised to nine, many of his longest working employees would only be making a dollar or two above the new minimum wage.

Many say raising the wage would do little to boost the economy because of inflation.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proposed dollar-twenty-five raise would be the largest to the minimum wage in more than four decades.